Summary: Let me start by saying that the Little Mermaid is my favourite movie ever. Some may call it juvenile, but hey, my friend is 19 and she loves practically every Disney movie on this planet. Anyways, I was watching the Little Mermaid the other day with said friend, and I was struck by the similarities in appearance between Ariel and Lily and Eric and James. That got me thinking a lot, and finally I decided that I had to try my hand at writing a fanfic out of it. Here is the result: an AU Lily/James fic based on the Little Mermaid. Basically, Lily is a muggle who loves reading books and watching movies about Wizards – and she believes that they're real. Her parents and her friends, ever the skeptics, are a little less than supportive of her fantasies. James is a pureblood Wizard – the son of the Minister for Magic to be exact – who has never had any experience of the muggle world. His parents want nothing more than for him to settle down and get married – to a nice respectable pureblood Wizard.
Disclaimer: I don't own any characters you recognize or the storyline. I know that and you know that, so let's move on.
"Jamsie poo! Waky, waky!" James Potter was very skilled at feigning sleep, but even he could not ignore an annoying, high pitched, girly voice yelling in his ear. He buried his head in his pillow, while blindly grabbing for the unused one next to him, and proceeded to sandwich his head between the two. Sirius Black, however, was not to be deterred. "Come on Prongs! It's time to eat!" James let out a groan at being woken up at an ungodly hour of the morning for no reason other than his friend's stomach, which incidentally never stopped growling. There are, however, only so many things one person can take without waking up and completely destroying any chance of falling back asleep, and being pounced on and licked by a humongous black dog is not one of them.
"Gerroff me!" James mumbled into the pillow while flailing his arms about trying to smack his friend in the face.
"James! Be careful! You're going to hit me in the face and mar my beautiful appearance."
"You mean I missed?" he joked, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.
"You wound me, Prongs. Where would we be without my flawless features attracting women by the dozen? Why, you may never get a date again!"
"I think I'll risk it," James replied flatly. He put on his glasses and laughed at the sight of his friend sitting on his bed in front of him, giving him the puppy dog eyes and the pouting lips. "That only works when you're a dog, Padfoot," he laughed.
"Well, I would love to sit here and argue with you more on your ability to get a date without the help of yours truly, but your mom and dotty had an argument this morning on who should make breakfast, and guess who won? Okay, I'll tell you. There's no need to beg. Me!"
"Dare I ask?"
"As the peacemaker and genius that I am, (here James snorted and then tried to cover it up, earning a glare from Sirius) I suggested that they both make breakfast!"
"I fail to see how that qualifies you as a 'genius'."
"Two amazing cooks both making breakfast for me? It's the stuff dreams are made of Prongs! I mean, how much better can you get than double the amount of amazing food? Pancakes and waffles. Bacon and sausages. Omlettes and –"
"Padfoot, let's go down and eat before you start drooling on my bed, okay?"
"Yes sir!" Sirius replied in mock salute before leading the way out of the room and towards the kitchen.
"Morning, mum," James said upon entering the kitchen. He went over and kissed her on the cheek before sitting down at the table.
"Morning mum," echoed Sirius, who had long since started his breakfast. Upon spotting the plate piled high with pancakes directly in front of Sirius's plate, James made a grab for it, but was unsuccessful due to Sirius swatting his hand out of the way. "Back off! Get your own breakfast!" he shouted before shoveling some more food in his mouth. "This is delicious," he continued, now addressing James's mother and their house elf, Dotty. "You guys should try a joint project more often." It didn't sound anything like that, of course, considering his mouth was full of food, but after a year of living with Sirius, everyone in the kitchen was proficient with interpreting his gibberish. James just rolled his eyes and started eating his own food.
Sirius continued inhaling his breakfast at an alarming rate, not even bothering to look up or mutter any kind of acknowledgement when James's father entered the kitchen and sat down at the table. "Good morning, Richard," James's mother said while bending over to kiss him on the cheek before placing a cup of coffee and the morning newspaper in front of him. "How did you sleep last night?"
"Pretty well, dear," he answered amiably. "I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow."
"What time did you get in? I was fast asleep, and I didn't wake up when you came to bed."
"Oh, it must have been around 3 a.m. I had a lot of work to do at the office."
"Mom, is it okay if Sirius and I go to Hogsmeade today? We are supposed to meet Remus and Peter there."
"Is anything wrong, dear?"
"No," he replied, shooting an uneasy glance at Sirius. "It's just some bonding time with the boys."
"Alright. Have fun."
"Oh, and we won't be back until tomorrow. We are going to stay at Remus's place for the night."
"Be careful"
"We will, mom."
"So James," Richard began, "met any new girls recently? Anyone you think we should meet?" It seemed like an innocent enough question, but everyone could feel the temperature in the room drop ten degrees.
"Not since the last time you asked, no" James replied disdainfully.
"Don't you take that tone of voice with me. I just want what's best for you."
"Yes, but you think that what's best for me is to rush into marriage at the age of 18 with some pureblood witch that I barely know with lots of money in the bank and a nice image that will make me a shoe in for the next Minister of Magic!"
Everyone in the room watched as a silent battle of wills broke out between James and his father, both of them glaring icily at the other waiting for them to break. Finally, Richard tore his gaze away and stood up from his chair, neatly folding his newspaper and putting his coffee cup in the sink. "I need to go to work. I have a job to do unlike some people who can laze around all day." James scoffed at this and refused to look at his father. "Goodbye, Caroline, I'll see you later this evening." On that bitter note, he grabbed his coat from the closet and exited the house, slamming the front door behind him.
"James! That was uncalled for," his mother admonished as soon as her husband was gone.
"Uncalled for? You have got to be kidding me! He will not lay off me for a second. He keeps on pressuring me to find someone to marry. 'James, you need to settle down with a respectable pureblood witch who will support you and help you further your political career.'"
"Honey, we all want to see you happily settled down with the right girl."
"Right! And the right girl just happens to be the girl that dad approves of? What happens if I fall in love with some girl and she happens to be a muggleborn, or even a muggle? Am I supposed to just tell her sorry, I can't be with her, because my parents would disown me and it would ruin my chances of becoming Minister for Magic?"
"Your father just wants what's best for you."
"So he says. More like he wants what's best for him. I don't even want to be the stupid Minister for Magic. I have no interest in politics. If he's so mad because I don't do anything all day and he thinks that makes me lazy, he should have thought of that before he refused to allow me to enter the Auror Academy. Yeah, he wants what's best for me, all right. But screw anything that might make me happy. Come on Sirius, we're leaving."
Sirius, who had been unusually quiet throughout the whole conversation, sent an apologetic glance toward Caroline and obediently followed his friend out the door.
"I can't believe him!" James yelled once they were out the door. "I could be in the Auror Academy right now preparing for a really meaningful career doing something that matters to the world and to me. I could be buying a flat with the money I have and finally be free of my father's nagging."
"James –"
"Instead, I'm stuck in my parents' stuffy old house waiting for them to snuff it so I can live in the stuffy old house with my stuffy old wife and take over my dad's stuffy old job. And he has the nerve to call me lazy! It's his own fault I don't have a job!"
"Look Prongs, there's Moony and Wormtail," Sirius pointed out, effectively halting James's rant. James grumbled as they approached their other friends, and while Peter was as clueless as ever, Remus could tell as soon as he saw his friend that he was upset.
"What's wrong, Prongs?" he inquired.
Sirius slapped his hand to his forehead. "You had to bring that up, didn't you Moony? I just got him to shut up about it." He was quickly silenced by glares from James and Remus, while Peter continued to look around absentmindedly.
"It's my stupid father."
"Ah, the old 'when are you going to get married to a nice respectable pureblood girl' bit?"
"You guessed it. Really, what is wrong with muggles and muggleborns?"
"I don't think your dad has anything against them, James. I think it's more a matter of him not wanting you to marry one."
"Well, he's an idiot. And a bigot. He preaches tolerance for everyone, yet he doesn't think enough of them to marry his only son."
"It's because he's afraid people wouldn't vote for you for Minister for Magic if you aren't married to a pureblood."
"I just wish he would let it sink into his thick skull that I don't want to be Minister of Magic. I don't want to be a politician. I want you guys to make me a promise. Promise me that if I ever get married and she's not pureblood, you'll be there, because we would definitely have to elope. My dad will not be at that wedding, and I'd rather the reason be that he's not invited than that he refuses to come."
"Of course we'll be there," Remus replied.
"Yeah, Prongs. We wouldn't miss it," Sirius added. "You make a commitment to someone? Now, this I've got to see!"
"Shut up!"
Well, I hope that you like it so far. The next chapter willhave Lily.